Forgetting the set

[Guest MoJo]

With this prolonged forced abstinence from live gigs or even rehearsals, is anyone else finding that their band’s set list and how to play it is fading from their memory?

[Nail Soup]

Yes -  I'm not spending much time keeping the knowledge up to date.

But on the occasions I do practice I remember more than I thought I would. But not enough!

[Happy Jack]

Having played slightly-wrong basslines to famous songs for years, I see this as a chance to come back to them 'fresh'. 😎

[Mykesbass]

Sorry, too many words in the OP that I no longer recognise...

[Maude]

I haven't played any stuff from either bands setlist since our last gig last March. I'm hoping it'll come back me. 

Don't tell anyone but I've been playing more guitar than bass for the last year. Shhhhh. 

[Len_derby]

Yes. But could you imagine how frustrating the first rehearsal will be if you’re the only one who remembers how the songs go? 
Or, is it always like that? 🤔

[chris_b]

No. I have source tracks for every song I've played in a band for the last 20 years. I have them grouped together in sets and can run through the lot at home. It's much more interesting that playing scales and the technical stuff. Only one band leader has said he wants a rehearsal before we resume gigs, and that's for him not the rest of us.

I'll get the usual phone call from the others asking, "Can you do the gig", followed by, "See you there".

[Lozz196]

I’ve not played any of my old bands set since I left but I’m pretty sure I could get up on stage and play no problem. Backing vocals, well there’s something that I really would need to rehearse, not for the words but the pitching.

[casapete]

I will definitely need to have a good few run throughs of our complete sets before we confirm our first post Covid gig, whenever that may be.  Nearly a year now and it doesn't bode well for my memory. Especially backing vocals which are always the first to disappear from my brain. We've already discussed having a couple of days rehearsal to get things tight, and we may have a new band member to accommodate too so it will be time well spent. 

[EssentialTension]

I was recently watching some old videos of gigs.

Quite often I had no memory at all of playing the songs, never mind which notes I actually played.

[Maude]

7 minutes ago, casapete said:

I will definitely need to have a good few run throughs of our complete sets before we confirm our first post Covid gig, whenever that may be.  Nearly a year now and it doesn't bode well for my memory. Especially backing vocals which are always the first to disappear from my brain. We've already discussed having a couple of days rehearsal to get things tight, and we may have a new band member to accommodate too so it will be time well spent. 

We've got a new drummer who joined just before lockdown so we'll need to get him up to speed, which will be perfect for getting the rest of back in shape. Hence why I haven't really bothered playing our set. 

[uk_lefty]

I had a bass lesson in December and could barely remember the names of most songs in our 60ish long set list. Last gig was 15th February 2020

[Maude]

40 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

I had a bass lesson in December and could barely remember the names of most songs in our 60ish long set list. Last gig was 15th February 2020

I'm like that when we're gigging every week. Someone will ask, "What songs do you do?" 

Um, er, one of them goes do da do, duh duh duh, oh what's it called. Oh, OK, bye then. 😄

[odysseus]

I got all our stuff on my hard drive, which I practise along to.  From what I can gather, the other three haven't done anything in weeks....

[jezzaboy]

Our last gig was November 2019 and we were in the studio a few times early last year due to breaking in our new singer. 

We were in once last September between lock downs and the musical side of the band were bang on. But the singer needs some time to get on it again I reckon.

Edited January 24, 2021 by jezzaboy

[Crawford13]

Never mind set list, my band have just finished tracking our debut album, which has taken a year, and now I have to learn to play it as I have forgotten it all😂

[mep]

I've got a bit lazy since our last gig in March last year. If I can find the inspiration I will practice on a Wednesday which was our band rehearsal night. Sometimes I've gone weeks between practices but most songs are ok. 

[ambient]

What are these ‘sets’ and ‘gigs’ of which you speak?

[mep]

11 minutes ago, ambient said:

What are these ‘sets’ and ‘gigs’ of which you speak?

 

[gjones]

A local fan has put a few of our full gigs on youtube. When it's time to get back to playing, I'll just play along to those a few times. 

Hopefully it will all come flooding back.... 

[Nicko]

Judging from previous extended absence I would remember pretty much all of the notes to all of the sections of all the songs.  I would forget when the sections change and sometimes which sections went with any particular song.

[Dad3353]

I'm not seeing the problem. Shirley everyone just pops the relevant part back onto the music stand and reads it again, no..? 

[NancyJohnson]

Fading from memory? I used to struggle at times when I was doing band stuff full time.

When I was (a lot) younger, I'd have this recurrent dream; I'm now a multimillionaire musician, writer, composer, producer and I've somehow been collared by (showing my age here), Eamonn Andrews for This Is Your Life.  I've grimaced my way through the show and am now surrounded by brown-nosers, lackeys, second-cousins met at family picnics etc.  At the end of the show, Eamonn announces, 'And to close the show, we're going to take you back to where it all started...'

The curtain pulls back and I see four old guys I remember jamming with maybe 40 years previously.  I hear the intro to a song I vaguely remember and someone hands me a bass.  

This is when I wake up.  Screaming.  Well, maybe not.

Edited January 25, 2021 by NancyJohnson

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Had a four hour rehearsal yesterday afternoon and have been doing so every Sunday for quite a few months now.

If you had told me two years ago that I would be regularly rehearsing online from home, I would have laughed.

How times change eh.

[Guest MoJo]

4 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Had a four hour rehearsal yesterday afternoon and have been doing so every Sunday for quite a few months now.

If you had told me two years ago that I would be regularly rehearsing online from home, I would have laughed.

How times change eh.

How do you do that without problems with time lag?